The growth of legal deserts in Wales

Executive summary

Access to justice is a core component of the rule of law, yet many areas of Wales are facing a growing crisis in access to legal services.

Described as “legal deserts”, these are areas where the presence of solicitors is so limited that people cannot easily obtain legal advice or representation when they need it.

This report draws on the latest data available including solicitor distribution, demographic trends and the impact of legal aid funding pressures.

The findings include:

• severe geographic inequality in solicitor density
• rising solicitor retirements without adequate replacement
• the attrition of legal aid providers
• increasing numbers of unrepresented litigants in civil, criminal and welfare cases

Evidence from the Law Society, the Legal Services Board, Access to Legal Services in Wales (2022) and Welsh government consultations on legal aid and rural access all point to a worsening situation with a potential 30% reduction in solicitor coverage in rural Wales by 2030, alongside a 40% rise in court backlogs.

As of 2023, Wales had 3,887 practising solicitors. However, access to these services is unevenly distributed.

While Cardiff has a solicitor density of 12.3 per 10,000 residents, provision declines sharply beyond the M4 corridor.

In Gwynedd, the ratio falls to just 1.9 per 10,000.

By comparison, London has more than 40 solicitors per 10,000 residents.